


luce in altis

by lucidities (incendiarism)



Category: IZONE (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Alice in Wonderland Fusion, Ambiguous/Open Ending, F/F, Non-Linear Narrative, Trippy, Unreliable Narrator, Wonderland
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-18
Updated: 2020-02-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:29:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22783318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/incendiarism/pseuds/lucidities
Summary: The story plays out like this: Yujin is Alice, Wonyoung the White Rabbit and everything else Wonderland.Hold your breath, close your eyes. Count to three. Open them again—find yourself inexplicably drawn into anything and everything.The chase begins.
Relationships: Ahn Yujin/Jang Wonyoung
Comments: 6
Kudos: 15
Collections: violently tender





	luce in altis

**Author's Note:**

> based off of the fiesta mv! stream bloom*iz :]

The bottom line is that it all amounts to a masterpiece of a monstrosity.

Spider threads spread across stubbled fields tinted murderous shades of violet, clearings glossed over with piercing blankets of gold. Smatterings of lights strung up above, a quiet aura of mystery. It’s some sort of meshold of magic, a camp patchwork equation that should’ve never been conceived—not with all of its frantic vibrancies and colors—but somehow works against all odds. A feverish scene to deal with, but the plot sprawls out across the plane nonetheless.

The story plays out like this: Yujin is Alice, Wonyoung the White Rabbit, and everything else Wonderland.

Meaning that Yujin’s been dropped straight down the rabbithole, shoved into the crawlspace, left to fend off whatever insanity awaits her in the fantasy dimension. Plummeted headfirst into a strange landscape, made to puzzle out anything she can from the hallucinations.

Maybe it’s a dream. Maybe it’s an acid trip.

Maybe she’s truly lost it, once and for all.

Would it be crazy to say that she doesn’t really care all that much?

Of course, it’s a mind-bending experience: wires crossed, poles reversed. It’s the sort of thing that makes you forget the difference between up and down, sky and sea. But it’s also terribly easy to fall into whatever Wonderland throws at you.

Hold your breath, close your eyes. Count to three. Open them again—find yourself inexplicably drawn into anything and everything. Find yourself unable to look away from the alabaster architecture and starlight ceilings and jeweled sky and—

Well. Wonderland has such a name for a reason. Wonderland’s got a reputation to uphold, endless imaginations to satisfy, and it does its job well. 

(A bit too well.)

—

Yujin chases the rabbit through all of the fields, running past palaces and ruins alike. She’s tunnel visioned into keeping up with Wonyoung, so focused that she probably could’ve gone on for eternities, probably _would’ve_ if not for someone calling out her name— 

Pause. Reality, or whatever pauper’s guise of reality they have here, crashes into Yujin’s head. No one but Wonyoung should know her name. Right?

Maybe she’s hearing things too.

The voice comes from an angel perched on the staircase to her left—aubergine bangs brushed across a flawless face, effortless grace seeping from every movement. And next to her stands a half-angel, wings flickering in and out of existence. Feathers all over the place, and the pure, blinding white that spreads itself throughout the land.

They smile at her in tandem, tell her to enjoy the festivities.

 _“But I don’t see any sort of celebration going on?”_ Yujin questions, still dazed from, well, everything.

That’s another thing about this damn place. Sometimes, the whole plot feels a bit like everyone else is in on some joke that you’ve been left out of—full of punchlines that don’t quite click and unspoken agreements that fall short of registering.

_“Well that’s the tricky thing about this place, darling. You can’t ever trust what you see—I mean, just take a look in the mirror.”_

A reflection made up of floodlights. Barely-there figures outlined in whites and blues and intrigue. 

It’s been too long. She needs to leave, otherwise it’ll be too late. Otherwise she’ll be too late.

Someone (the half angel? yes, it must be, it’s her short hair that brushes against Yujin’s cheek) pulls her in close for a brief moment—chests pressed together and fingers ghosting over skin and gossamer fabric.

 _“Be careful—”_ whispered in one breath; “ _Don’t get lost—”_ tuckedin the next.

Two beats of silence as one processes and the other waits. And then, a parting note that’s almost an afterthought:

 _“Here—”_ she says as she unties the ribbon from her hair and presses it into Yujin’s hands— “ _For good luck_. _You’ll need it._ ”

Yujin accepts the token. Yujin chases the rabbit even further.

— 

Weaving in and out of a foreign terrain. The colors flash by one by one, forming a blurred backdrop to up the dramatics, a smeared canvas to set the stage for the show.

Yujin, put under the spotlight, is always a few beats off.

Wonyoung is singing at one tempo, Yujin at another. A dubiously polyrhythmic, constantly shifting tempo to maintain—it’s no surprise that Yujin ends up staggering and falling out of time.

_Be careful._

She expects to be left in the dust, shattered heartbeat stuck behind one hairpin turn, one slammed-shut door too many. Just another ghost story, echoes of a faint voice stumbling off the winding corridors and twisting stairways.

But Wonyoung turns around, same angelic white set against an agitation of neon. Looks Yujin in the eye.

She’s picturesque, unreal. And she doesn’t want to be kept waiting. The clock ticks, a metronomic pulse to fall in line with. Yujin picks herself back up, tries to find the dubbing of the music again.

The chase continues. Lilting melody and steady harmonies.

— 

A maze made up of crystal chalices, the type that her grandmother might keep around for the sake of family heirlooms, all stacked together to form lattices upon lattices. Two girls placed at the center of the glass.

How did Yujin get here again?

_“What’s so special about her? Why are you so bent on chasing her?”_

Oh, right. She’d lost Wonyoung once more and had found her way to these two instead. Right. Well, there’s one question down. So many more to go . . . 

Really, why _is_ she so set on chasing Wonyoung? 

Well to be truthful, Yujin isn’t quite sure. So instead, she takes a page out of every other resident of Wonderland’s book—deflects the question, spins it into her own.

_“Why do you want to know? And could you even help me if I told you?”_

The two exchange looks, tittering words in a language that falls inscrutable on Yujin’s ears. It’s unsettling. Tick-tock.

 _“Oh, you’re a clever one. Well, since you’re so desperate for advice, try this: swallow the sun, feel it burn in your heart._ _If you’re deemed good enough_ ,” one of the two (Nako? or was it Hitomi?) tells Yujin, _“Maybe it’ll stay there forever.”_

_“How do I do that?”_

The other laughs (Nako, with that laugh it must be Nako) — “ _Silly, you should know by now that you have to figure it out yourself. You’re smart, Yujin, use that pretty head of yours._ ”

**_—_ **

**__**_“Why are you falling behind?”_ Wonyoung asks her at one point along the way, childish confusion draped all over her innocent face, as if keeping up was the easiest thing in the world. “ _We’re not even at the best part yet.”_

Right. There’s a climax to every solid story, a turning point.

_“Try to keep up—we can’t be late now, can we? We’ll miss all of the festivities!”_

There’s that word again. _“Festivities?”_

No response this time. At least no response that’s helpful, if Wonyoung’s laughter can be considered an answer.

Yujin’s starting to see a pattern.

— 

6:00 o’clock. A tea party. The celebration turns out to be a tea party.

The Hatter— _or is it the March Hare? Are they one and the same in this world?_ —stands at the head of the table. After some careful eavesdropping, Yujin learns that her name is Yena, that she is, in fact, a Hatter who’s also mad as a march hare, and not much else.

Oh, these people and their penchant for half-empty words, their love of misleading sentences laced with double-meaning after double meaning. Navigating every conversation becomes a minefield: one wrong step and you’ll lose a limb.

(Or more, if you’re unlucky.)

It’s a clean little recap of the rest of the story thus far, with all the familiar faces making an appearance again. The angels—Eunbi and Chaewon, as Yujin picks up from more tactical overhearing—are present in all of their pure white; Nako and Hitomi chatter across the table.

All of it makes Yujin’s head spin a bit, but she’s learned to expect that at this point.

Someone makes a toast; someone else chimes in. Yujin finds herself joining in mindlessly.

Wonyoung makes eye contact from across the table. Flashes a smile. Something in Yujin burns. There’s probably enough heat to last for an eternity.

The rabbit’s been caught. Time has run out.

Yujin's hand tightens around the ribbon still held in its grasp. Good luck, right?

**Author's Note:**

> if this work is a mess it is because it was written in one (1) day unbetaed while sick as a dog, loopy with cold meds, and running on very little sleep. hopefully this only serves to add to the feverish vibe i want it to have but who knows! also if you spot a typo please please tell me. thank you.
> 
> as always, feel free to tell me what you think on twitter, cc, or the comments!
> 
> twt: [@nanodarlings](https://twitter.com/nanodarlings)  
> cc: [aphelions](https://curiouscat.me/aphelions)  
> 
> 
> [inspiration](https://hereinevitably.dreamwidth.org/4274.html)


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